Design and Experimental Assessment of Detection Schemes for Air Interface Attacks in Adverse Scenarios

Abstract

In this letter, we propose three schemes designed to detect attacks over the air interface in cellular networks. These decision rules rely on the generalized likelihood ratio test, and are fed by data that can be acquired using common off-the-shelf receivers. In addition to more classical (barrage/smart) noise jamming attacks, we further assess the capability of the proposed schemes to detect the stealthy activation of a rogue base station. The evaluation is carried out through an experimentation of a LTE system concretely reproduced using Software-Defined Radios. Illustrative examples confirm that the proposed schemes can effectively detect air interface threats with high probability.